MCCAIN ALSO WRONG ABOUT KOSOVO

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL JOHN MCCAIN, in a March, 2008 speech, seemed to go out of his way to offend the Russian government, making it clear that he doesn't regard the regime there as a democracy.

If the media are on the lookout for gaffes by the presidential campaigns, they missed a big one in March, when Cindy McCain met with Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in Kosovo's capital Pristina, while her husband was giving a major foreign policy speech calling for new foundations for a stable and enduring peace. Kosovo's declaration of independence, which McCain accepts and was implicitly recognized by Cindy McCain's visit to Pristina, is a major threat to global peace and security. It could spark a U.S. war with Russia.

It may be asking too much, however, for the media to cover a gaffe like this. The Kosovo policy is a bipartisan blunder. For the liberal media, Iraq, where McCain differs with Hillary and Obama about the length of stay of the U.S. military, seems to be the only foreign policy issue worth talking about. But the U.S. faces other major problems.

We need to recall that the war against the former Yugoslavia was depicted by the liberal media as a worthwhile humanitarian intervention. But it was waged on the basis of Clinton Administration lies of a genocide being waged against Albanian Muslims in Kosovo, a province of Serbia. In fact, the Clinton Administrations NATO war against Yugoslavia probably cost more lives than were lost in the civil war in Kosovo.

Serbian troops were forced to withdraw in exchange for an international guarantee that Serbia would retain sovereignty over Kosovo but the province would get substantial autonomy. The U.S. agreed to that, but that agreement was violated when the Bush Administration, with backing from McCain and Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, recently recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.

Sending his wife to Kosovo confirms that McCain accepts Clinton's fraudulent version of what happened there and that he agrees with Bush's solution, which can only make the situation worse.

Conservatives should contemplate what is happening here. McCain, who says he wants to wage a vigorous war against Islamic radicals worldwide, is prepared to let Muslim extremists come to power in Kosovo and even have their own sovereign state. This is itself a major gaffe. But McCain compounded it when he gave a speech urging the building of international structures for a durable peace, including strengthening NATO.

This sounds good, except that McCain has to know that recognizing Kosovo's independence has split Western nations and even NATO itself. It is a major foreign policy blunder that the next administration, Democrat or Republican, may never recover from. It represents a direct threat to the international order of nation-states. That is why many nations have not recognized this new state of Kosovo. They realize that Kosovo's independence could spark other groups to wage wars against established regimes around the world.

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MITT ROMNEY SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN

Why did this man wait so long to give THIS speech, And I'm not talking about the "suspension" or "concession" clause at the end of the speech, announcing his withdrawal from the active campaign. I'm talking about his strong point by point delivery of conservative values and conservative issues, a clear vision riveting with details that make sense to those of us unafraid to acknowledge those principles. Mitt Romney was the only candidate (other than the more intellectually diminutive Tom Tancredo) who really gets it. His speech at CPAC yesterday nailed the Islamofascist enemy in our midst and abroad...

"...And finally, let's consider the greatest challenge facing America – and facing the entire civilized world: the threat of violent, radical Jihad. In one wing of the world of Islam, there is a conviction that all governments should be destroyed and replaced by a religious caliphate. These Jihadists will battle any form of democracy. To them, democracy is blasphemous for it says that citizens, not God shape the law. They find the idea of human equality to be offensive. They hate everything we believe about freedom just as we hate everything they believe about radical Jihad."

He knows the enemy, is not afraid to name them, and has obviously spent a bit of time developing a cogent plan to deal with it...

"To battle this threat, we have sent the most courageous and brave soldiers in the world. But their numbers have been depleted by the Clinton years when troops were reduced by 500,000, when 80 ships were retired from the Navy, and when our human intelligence was slashed by 25%. We were told that we were getting a peace dividend. We got the dividend, but we didn't get the peace. In the face of evil in radical Jihad and given the inevitable military ambitions of China, we must act to rebuild our military might – raise military spending to 4% of our GDP, purchase the most modern armament, re-shape our fighting forces for the asymmetric demands we now face, and give the veterans the care they deserve..."

Let's face it. McCain talks big, but is a lightweight when it comes to marshalling details. He thinks he's Ronald Reagan. Come to tghink of it, his voice does waver a bit like Reagan's did in the latter years of his tour of duty. But is that enough. Aren't we looking for a real communicator once again. And McCain is no communicator. That much is clear with all his "my friends" and other talking point repetitions. And even in his early primary victory speeches he literally had to look down and read his enthusiam off the page.

Today was sad day for America. Hopefully we can hold our borders together and not limp our way to becoming another France or Great Britain in four years.